Costa Rican astronaut

A photo of Tico astronaut Franklin Chang with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office was chosen as one of 2015's best by White House photographers.

Former astronauts from various international space agencies will share their experiences at a public event at the National Stadium in San José next Wednesday. It's part of a U.N.-sponsored workshop on human space technology.

A photo of Tico astronaut Franklin Chang with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office was chosen as one of the year's best by White House photographers.

New, high-resolution images of the surface of Pluto beamed from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal unparalleled geographical variety - from soaring mountains to sand dunes to frozen ice floes, scientists said Saturday.

"The excitement of exploration has to give way to the real business at hand: the expansion of humans into space. I’m not just talking about space tourism, but mining, research, resettling, everything. We don’t want to wait until the planet becomes uninhabitable."

Former NASA astronaut and Tico scientist Franklin Chang Diaz on Tuesday met with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís to deliver a series of proposals aimed at improving energy generation and creating more efficient transit in the country.

Chang hopes to raise money to produce a documentary video about how the plasma rocket engine he designed will function.

Chang turned to KickStarter.com to help promote the launch of his plasma engine, which is set for a mission in 2014.

Chang, the first Latin American to visit space, holds the record for most space trips.